Fuel system running rich?

[Rednaz]

UPDATE: Myself and a work colleague (that's more clued up on cars and makes a living from it as a side hustle) had a chat about all things that's been tested on my car and what it could be that's the issue.

He suggested unplugging the camshaft timing sensor and testing if it'll make any difference when driving the car coz he's theory was:

'' Maybe the sensor is constantly staying on an open-circuit (instead of closed-circuit on lower rev range) overflooding the engine on the lower rev range and being a bit more 'driveable' on the higher rev range. ''

Full disclosure: I have replaced this sensor once since owning the car in the past 5 years (the last one fell out in pieces when I took it out) and haven't looked back since.

This morning I unplugged the camshaft timing sensor and reset the battery for 1 hour. Thereafter I drove to a local supermarket about 3kms away (this did give me a check engine light) but there's a major difference in acceleration response and there's less lack of power feeling also.

I forgot my wallet when I got to supermarket, so I did this drive twice today and no issues. (I even pushed it a bit through the rev range of 2nd,3rd,4th gear to see if there's any a moment that it feel it's holding back (like when the MAF sensor is unplugged but limits you on higher speeds) but it was all good still.



Would the next step be to take this sensor out and clean it, then test again or replace it?

Right now if I have to replace it, it'll have to wait for the next month or so. But driving around with CEL with way better engine response I really don't mind but it won't harm the engine right?

Thank you for everyone's input so far guys..